don't feel sorry for Oakland either, he should have gotten life at least, but get's a petty 4 years.
Oakland, California (CNN) -- Police arrested 83 people in downtown Oakland Thursday night after hundreds protested the verdict in the trial of a white former police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man, Oakland police officials told CNN.
Police issued a variety of charges, including failure to disperse, resisting arrest, burglary, vandalism and assualting a police officer and the people were transported to jail.
The former officer, Johannes Mehserle, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Thursday, a conviction that usually carries a maximum four-year sentence.
But some in Oakland expected a tougher penalty for the former police officer, and took to the streets in protest.
Crowds broke the glass of a Foot Locker and other stores. Others threw sneakers out of the store as police wearing gas masks stormed the area.
At the high point of the protests about 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET), there were an estimated 800 people in the streets, Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts said.
By 10:30 p.m, there were about 75 left, Batts said.
The protests were contained to the downtown area, police said.
Police tell CNN they are still collecting information on the total number of businesses that were vandalized.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums downplayed the demonstrations.
"People were preparing for everything to explode, but I am extremely happy that so far it has not, and I hope that it doesn't," Dellums said. "We're not going to tear our own community apart, because we've got issues that we've got to deal with."
Oakland police had prepared for protests and ways of quelling the demonstrations days before the verdict.
Mehserle could have been found not guilty, guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of voluntary manslaughter -- or guilty of involuntary manslaughter -- as the jury decided.
Mehserle, a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer at the time of the incident, was accused of shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform on January 1, 2009.
The trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles because of pre-trial publicity.
Mehserle, wearing a gray suit, blue shirt and red tie, showed no emotion during the reading of the verdict. The former officer did not say anything to Superior Court Judge Robert Perry or attorneys. About a dozen Los Angeles County deputies escorted the handcuffed defendant out of the courtroom after the verdict was announced.
Outside the courtroom, Grant family members expressed outrage at the verdict.
"My son was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered. My son was murdered," said Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson. "The system has let us down, but God will never ever let us down."
Johnson and other speakers said African-Americans have been the victims of police abuse and a biased judicial system. She said Mehserle wasn't found accountable.
"We couldn't get even six hours of deliberations," said Johnson, who accused jurors of being unfair.
Mehserle, who was on duty when the shooting occurred, said at the trial that he intended to draw and fire his Taser rather than his gun, CNN affiliate KTVU reported.
Sentencing is set for August 6. Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison under California law. But the judge could add an "enhancement" that could provide a longer sentence because a firearm was used.
Members of the jury, which included no African-Americans, said they were unanimous in their decision. Their finding indicates that Mehserle was criminally negligent.
The shooting was captured on a bystander's cell-phone video camera. The video was widely circulated on the Internet and on news broadcasts, and it spurred several protests in and around Oakland.
Bay Area Rapid Transit police were called to Oakland's Fruitvale station on January 1, 2009, after passengers complained about fights on a train. Officers pulled several men, including Grant, off the train when it arrived at Fruitvale.
The video showed Mehserle pulling his gun and fatally shooting Grant in the back as another officer knelt on the unarmed man.
Mehserle resigned his position a few days after the incident and was later arrested in Nevada.
83 protesters arrested after verdict in killing of unarmed black man - CNN.com
I really don't understand how people breaking into stores and stealing things is going to help anything. What is the point of riots anyway? Granted he should have gotten more than 4 years BUT people get shot like this same scenario everyday. Here are some pics...
Oakland Riots - a gallery on Flickr
Unarmed, handcuffed, lying face down with another officers knee on the back of his head, while many witnesses are standing around watching DO NOT get shot in the back everyday...then have the killer basically get away with it. Of course the riots don't help, but I expect nothing less with this and don't feel sorry for the city.
I am saying people get shot everyday, people get raped everyday, people get tortured everyday, people get abused everyday. So a man gets shot, granted it isn't right and should never had happened but why riot? What good is busting the window at Foot Locker going to prove? Instead of pouring all their efforts into another "wrong" why not turn this into something that good can come out of?
You said in this scenario, of course people get shot everyday, but not by people who are supposed to protect us and the amount of overwhelming evidence. When an unarmed guy gets shot in the back for no reason by some trigger-happy fool, then gets away with it, people are going to be ****ed. Breaking into some foot-locker doesn't look good, but it was expected when one of their own got away with murder by one of their judges, they'll learn to fear the public's backlash a little more and not let something this disgraceful happen again. It destroys the confidence in our justice system when someone can get away with this, esp. a cop.
I believe that everytime a child gets raped and murdered or a child gets abused and the attacker gets off free, our confidence in the justice system goes down. Things like this happen but not everyone goes off and destroys a store for free stuff. What good is breaking into a store and stealing a DVD player or TV's going to do??
You said in this scenario, of course people get shot everyday, but not by people who are supposed to protect us and the amount of overwhelming evidence. When an unarmed guy gets shot in the back for no reason by some trigger-happy fool, then gets away with it, people are going to be ****ed.
Yes I said in this scenario meaning people do get shot everyday and of course police are supposed to be there to protect and serve BUT there are bad cops just as there are bad judges and so on. Unarmed people get shot everyday by some trigger happy fools and they get away with it. Sure the guy was a cop and sure he was expected to uphold higher standards or whatever but at the end of the day he is still a man just like everyone else.
I am not disputing the fact that the police officer was wrong and should have a harsher punishment but I am disputing the reasons for a riot. There are no reasons for a riot, all it is is for some people to take advantage of a situation and steal/ destroy someone else's property for their own gain. NOW where is the sense in that????
kill the guy- these people would burn a store if Oakland won a sporting event. 2 wrongs don't make a right. Let them work on drive-bys when they solve this.Originally Posted by R13
We'll keep the lights on for you.
Spuds
Oh, how true that is! Why take something like that out on the neighborhoods? Why not take it out on the courthoses and police precincts? The neighborhood didn't deserve this. Just a bunch of thugs who saw this as an opportunity to steal.
I'm not supporting the riots and what some have done, but the city is the one to blame. Sentence the guy to life like he deserved and people wouldn't be ****ed. I just don't know how someone can get away with something so blatant as what this guy did.
It isn't the city's fault, it is the court system's fault and(to his lawyer's credit) picking a jury that was sympathetic to him. Like I said, don't blame the city. The system failed the victim and the citizens of Oakland, not the city.
Even the victim's mother said it was the system that let them down.
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